De la cooperativa agroalimentaria a la "learning netchain". Hacia un planteamiento teorico interorganizativo e interpersonal

Se propone un planteamiento teórico/conceptual para determinar si las relaciones interorganizativas e interpersonales de la netchain de las cooperativas agroalimentarias evolucionan hacia una learning netchain. Las propuestas del trabajo muestran que el mayor grado de asociacionismo y la mayor cooperación/colaboración vertical a lo largo de la cadena están positivamente relacionados con la posición horizontal de la empresa focal más cercana del consumidor final. Esto requiere una planificación y una resolución de problemas de manera conjunta, lo que está positivamente relacionado con el mayor flujo y diversidad de la información/conocimiento obtenido y diseminado a lo largo de la netchain. Al mismo tiempo se necesita desarrollar un contexto social en el que fluya la información/conocimiento y las nuevas ideas de manera informal y esto se logra con redes personales y, principalmente, profesionales y con redes internas y, principalmente, externas. Todo esto permitirá una mayor satisfacción de los socios de la cooperativa agroalimentaria y de sus distribuidores y una mayor intensidad en I+D, convirtiéndose la netchain de la cooperativa agroalimentaria, así, en una learning netchain.

Annotated Chromosome Maps for Renal Disease

A combination of linkage analyses and association studies are currently employed to promote the identification of genetic factors contributing to inherited renal disease. We have standardized and merged complex genetic data from disparate sources, creating unique chromosomal maps to enhance genetic epidemiological investigations. This database and novel renal maps effectively summarize genomic regions of suggested linkage, association, or chromosomal abnormalities implicated in renal disease. Chromosomal regions associated with potential intermediate clinical phenotypes have been integrated, adding support for particular genomic intervals. More than 500 reports from medical databases, published scientific literature, and the World Wide Web were interrogated for relevant renal-related information. Chromosomal regions highlighted for prioritized investigation of renal complications include 3q13-26, 6q22-27, 10p11-15, 16p11-13, and 18q22. Combined genetic and physical maps are effective tools to organize genetic data for complex diseases. These renal chromosome maps provide insights into renal phenotype-genotype relationships and act as a template for future genetic investigations into complex renal diseases. New data from individual researchers and/or future publications can be readily incorporated to this resource via a user-friendly web-form accessed from the website: www.qub.ac.uk/neph-res/CORGI/index.php.

Peer-mentoring for first-time mothers from areas of socio-economic disadvantage: a qualitative study within a randomised controlled trial

Objective: To explore the difficulties experienced by lay-workers, women and health professionals involved in a peer-mentoring programme for first-time mothers living in socially disadvantaged areas. Design: Qualitative study; semi-structured interviews with lay-worker peer-mentoring programme participants at two separate stages of the programme (antenatal and postnatal). Setting: Community based. Participants: 11 women receiving peer-mentoring support (from first hospital antenatal visit to one year postnatal); 11 lay-workers; 2 research midwives. Results: Lay-workers had difficulty initiating contact with women and failure to establish contact affected their morale adversely. They felt that women understood their intended role poorly and attempted to develop relationships with them by sharing personal experiences and offering friendship; women who participated in the programme appreciated this. Developing a peer-mentor relationship was difficult if women lacked interest in the programme or in continuing contact. External influences on peer-mentoring uptake and delivery included family and friends who could prevent or encourage women’s participation and cause difficulties for the lay-worker both in delivering support and arranging follow-up. Lay-workers providing support to women from a different ethnic background experienced difficulties relating to both language and culture: these were perceived to affect peer-mentor relationships adversely. Major personal difficulties for lay-workers related to time constraints in reconciling mentoring requirements with demands of family and other work. Informing midwives of these difficulties helped identify solutions through training and ongoing professional support for the lay-workers. Conclusions: Lay-worker peer support is appreciated by first time mothers but difficulties in initiating contact, developing peer-mentor relationships and external influences such as family, ethnicity and time constraints are relevant to poor uptake and high staff turnover. In developing peer support programmes, awareness of potential difficulties and of how professional support can help resolve these should improve uptake and thus optimise the evaluations of their effectiveness.

An improved elastic-viscoplastic soil model

This paper develops an improved and accessible framework for modelling time-dependent behaviour of soils using the concepts of elasticity and viscoplasticity. The mathematical description of viscoplastic straining is formulated based on a purely viscoplastic and measurable phenomenon, namely creep. The resulting expression for the viscoplastic strain rates includes a measure of both effective stress and the corresponding volumetric packing of the soil particles. In this way, the model differs from some earlier viscoplastic models and arguably provides a better conceptual description of time-dependent behaviour. Analytical solutions are developed for the simulation of drained and undrained strain-controlled triaxial compression tests. The model is then used to back-analyze the measured response of normally consolidated to moderately overconsolidated specimens of a soft estuarine soil in undrained triaxial compression. The model captures aspects of soil behaviour that cannot be simulated using time-independent elastic–plastic models. Specifically, it can capture the dependence of stress–strain relationships and undrained shear strength on strain rate, the development of irrecoverable plastic strains at constant stress (creep), and the relaxation of stresses at constant strain

How counselling psychologists view their personal therapy

A survey of UK chartered counselling psychologists (N = 192) was carried out to investigate how they viewed their personal therapy. Eighty-four respondents completed questionnaires about their reasons and motivations for therapy, as well as its outcome and process. The results indicated that the majority (88%) were in favour of personal therapy as a training requirement. Most respondents rated the outcome and process of their personal therapy as positive, however 27% also reported some negative effects. A factor analysis of various components of personal therapy indicated that counselling psychologists made a distinction between three factors, i.e. learning about therapy itself, issues arising out of training and dealing with personal issues. Analyses of the data suggested that aims and motivation for therapy were related to dealing with personal issues, whereas these were not important for the other factors. Learning about therapy itself was related to the number of sessions: more specifically, chose who had more than the mandatory 40 sessions rated contributions of their personal therapy co understanding therapeutic relationships and processes more highly than those who had less. Initial sessions may be used by trainees to explore personal issues, leading to a preoccupation with the self, and learning about therapy per se may only occur once this has been dealt with.

Soil resource supply influences faunal size-specific distributions in natural food webs

The large range of body-mass values of soil organisms provides a tool to assess the ecological organization of soil communities. The goal of this paper is to identify graphical and quantitative indicators of soil community composition and ecosystem functioning, and to illustrate their application to real soil food webs. The relationships between log-transformed mass and abundance of soil organisms in 20 Dutch meadows and heathlands were investigated. Using principles of allometry, maximal use can be made of ecological theory to build and explain food webs. The aggregate contribution of small invertebrates such as nematodes to the entire community is high under low soil phosphorus content and causes shifts in the mass-abundance relationships and in the trophic structures. We show for the first time that the average of the trophic link lengths is a reliable predictor for assessing soil fertility responses. Ordered trophic link pairs suggest a self-organizing structure of food webs according to resource availability and can predict environmental shifts in ecologically meaningful ways.

Creating continuity out of the disruption of a diagnosis of HIV during pregnancy

AIM: To understand the uniqueness of the experience of testing HIV positive from the perspective of pregnant women.

BACKGROUND: As more people learn of their HIV diagnosis through routine screening processes, it is timely to reflect on the impact of receiving an unexpected positive result.

DESIGN: A prospective qualitative study.

METHODS: This paper draws on the case studies of four women who were participating in a larger prospective qualitative study of reproductive decision-making, pregnancy and childbirth following HIV diagnosis. Multiple interviews were conducted following diagnosis during pregnancy, and, after the birth of their babies. Thematic data analysis was undertaken.

RESULTS: Drawing on Becker's theory of disruption, we document the 'sudden disjuncture' of their antenatal diagnosis and the embodied emotional struggle the women engaged in to create continuity in their lives. A diagnosis of HIV disrupted the women's biographies in terms of their health, relationships and social identity. As pregnant women, the threat of HIV was experienced most significantly in relation to their unborn child. However, their narratives also revealed how a diagnosis of HIV in the context of pregnancy, whilst traumatic, provided a focus for regaining continuity in their lives, as the baby became a metaphor for hope and orientation toward the future.

CONCLUSIONS: As HIV testing becomes more 'routine', the findings of this study serve to remind health professionals that a positive diagnosis continues to constitute a major trauma to individuals and families.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: We propose that appropriately educated nursing and midwifery staff could facilitate the 'meaning making' process that is required for newly diagnosed HIV positive persons to find a subjective sense of well-being in their lives.

Sharing Classes between Separate Schools: a mechanism for improving inter-group relations in Northern Ireland?

One manifestation of division and the history of conflict in Northern Ireland is the parallel education system that exists for Protestants and Catholics. Although recent decades have seen some advances in the promotion of integrated education, around 95% of children continue to attend schools separated on ethno-religious lines. In 2007 a programme for sharing education was established. Underpinned by intergroup contact theory, and reflecting educational priorities shared by all school sectors, the programme seeks to offer children from different denominational schools an opportunity to engage with each other on a sustained basis. In this article the authors adopt a quantitative approach to examining the impact of participation in the Sharing Education Programme on a range of outcomes (out-group attitudes, positive action tendencies and out-group trust) via, first, intergroup contact (cross-group friendships) and, second, intergroup anxiety. Their findings confirm the value of contact as a mechanism for promoting more harmonious relationships, and affirm the Sharing Education Programme as an initiative that can help promote social cohesion in a society that remains deeply divided.

Constructing a global understanding of the social ecology of leaving out of home care

Engagement with globalisation is growing in the field of youth transitions from out of home care. This includes cross national exchange of research, policy and practise, regional advocacy networking and global policy development. Furthering this emerging international child welfare perspective requires extending it to countries in the developing world and building conceptual frameworks which encompass a social ecology of care leaving, including its global dimension, the latter needs to address not only the needs, expectations and rights of care leavers but also the theories of change underpinning service design and delivery. Such a model is presented combining resilience and social capital as personal assets situated within a social ecology of support. To illustrate how this provides a means to help engage with the experience of countries where there appears to be very little information available on care leaving, a small scale South African initiative is considered. SA-YES is a youth mentoring project for young people leaving a variety of out of home placements. Planned as a three-year pilot, initial results are encouraging but require more rigorous evaluation focusing on program process and outcomes, quality of interpersonal relationships and synchronisation with cultural expectations and policy environment.

Extracellular Loop 2 of the Free Fatty Acid Receptor 2 Mediates Allosterism of a Phenylacetamide Ago-Allosteric Modulator

Allosteric agonists are powerful tools for exploring the pharmacology of closely related G protein-coupled receptors that have nonselective endogenous ligands, such as the short chain fatty acids at free fatty acid receptors 2 and 3 (FFA2/GPR43 and FFA3/GPR41, respectively). We explored the molecular mechanisms mediating the activity of 4-chloro-alpha-(1-methylethyl)-N-2-thiazolylbenzeneacetamide (4-CMTB), a recently described phenylacetamide allosteric agonist and allosteric modulator of endogenous ligand function at human FFA2, by combining our previous knowledge of the orthosteric binding site with targeted examination of 4-CMTB structure-activity relationships and mutagenesis and chimeric receptor generation. Here we show that 4-CMTB is a selective agonist for FFA2 that binds to a site distinct from the orthosteric site of the receptor. Ligand structure-activity relationship studies indicated that the N-thiazolyl amide is likely to provide hydrogen bond donor/acceptor interactions with the receptor. Substitution at Leu(173) or the exchange of the entire extracellular loop 2 of FFA2 with that of FFA3 was sufficient to reduce or ablate, respectively, allosteric communication between the endogenous and allosteric agonists. Thus, we conclude that extracellular loop 2 of human FFA2 is required for transduction of cooperative signaling between the orthosteric and an as-yet-undefined allosteric binding site of the FFA2 receptor that is occupied by 4-CMTB.

Procesamiento de la Información Social, Relaciones entre Iguales y Ajuste Social: Agresión y Victimización

El presente estudio fue realizado en tres clases del Centro de Educación Primaria "Filósofo Séneca" de Madrid. El objetivo fue determinar la forma en que los niños de 5º y 6º de educación primaria procesan la información social y su relación con el nivel de ajuste social manifestado, expresado en términos de agresividad y victimización. El estudio, se basa en el Modelo de Procesamiento de la Información Social propuesto por Crick y Dodge (1994) y examina el cuarto paso de éste, la generación de respuestas alternativas. Se recogieron datos de forma individualizada de n=55 niños, 24 niños y 31 niñas. La hipótesis principal, formulada como que un déficit en el procesamiento de la información social se relacionará con unos niveles más altos de agresión y victimización, se mantiene.

The following study was implemented in three classes of the Primary EducationCentre «Filósofo Séneca». Its aim was to determine the way that children of this age processsocial information and the relation between this and the level of aggression or victimizationthey show.The study is based on the Model of Social Information Processing proposed byCrick and Dodge in 1994, and examines the fourth step of this model, the generation of alternative responses. The principal hypothesis, that a deficit in social information process-ing will be related to higher levels of aggression and victimization, is supported.

Integrating allowable design strains in composites with whole life value

Fibre-Reinforced Plastics (FRPs) have been used in civil aerospace vehicles for decades. The current state-of-the-art in airframe design and manufacture results in approximately half the airframe mass attributable to FRP materials. The continual increase in the use of FRP materials over metallic alloys is attributable to the material's superior specific strength and stiffness, fatigue performance and corrosion resistance. However, the full potential of these materials has yet to be exploited as analysis methods to predict physical failure with equal accuracy and robustness are not yet available. The result is a conservative approach to design, but one that can bring benefit via increased inspection intervals and reduced cost over the vehicle life. The challenge is that the methods used in practice are based on empirical tests and real relationships and drivers are difficult to see in this complex process and so the trade-off decision is challenging and uncertain. The aim of this feasibility study was to scope a viable process which could help develop some rules and relationships based on the fundamental mechanics of composite material and the economics of production and operation, which would enhance understanding of the role and impact of design allowables across the life of a composite structure.

The Corruption of Accountability

Our discussion focuses on the state’s ceding administrative power to special claimants for the state’s inattention. Legal corruption, by our lights, is less about explicit or implicit exchange relationships, and more about law being employed to carve out spaces where the state actively cedes spaces to private ‘sovereigns’ – sovereigns within the space, after it has been carved out – where they can regulate themselves as they see fit and where they can project their power over others without the state stepping in.

A Review on Bradykinin-Related Peptides Isolated from Amphibian Skin Secretion

Amphibian skin secretion has great potential for drug discovery and contributes hundreds of bioactive peptides including bradykinin-related peptides (BRPs). More than 50 BRPs have been reported in the last two decades arising from the skin secretion of amphibian species. They belong to the families Ascaphidae (1 species), Bombinatoridae (3 species), Hylidae (9 speices) and Ranidae (25 species). This paper presents the diversity of structural characteristics of BRPs with N-terminal, C-terminal extension and amino acid substitution. The further comparison of cDNA-encoded prepropeptides between the different species and families demonstrated that there are various forms of kininogen precursors to release BRPs and they constitute important evidence in amphibian evolution. The pharmacological activities of isolated BRPs exhibited unclear structure–function relationships, and therefore the scope for drug discovery and development is limited. However, their diversity shows new insights into biotechnological applications and, as a result, comprehensive and systematic studies of the physiological and pharmacological activities of BRPs from amphibian skin secretion are needed in the future.